Jim Inhofe Brings A Snowball To The Senate Floor To Prove Climate Change Is A 'Hoax'

WASHINGTON -- The Senate's most vocal critic of the scientific consensus on climate change, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, tossed a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday as part of his case for why global warming is a hoax.

Inhofe, who wrote the book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, took to the floor to decry the "hysteria on global warming."

"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, 'You know what this is?'" he said, holding up a snowball. "It's a snowball, from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."

"Catch this," he said to the presiding officer, tossing the blob of snow.

Inhofe went on to list the recent cold temperatures across parts of the United States, which included 67 new record lows earlier this week according to the National Weather Service, as evidence that global warming claims are overhyped. "We hear the perpetual headline that 2014 has been the warmest year on record. But now the script has flipped."

Despite the record lows in some parts of the country, the nation overall has been experiencing a warmer than average winter.

Jim Inhofe Brings A Snowball To The Senate Floor To Prove Climate Change Is A 'Hoax'

What Climate Change Just Might Ruin

1/ 31

Sweet Snorkeling Pics

As humans increase atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, oceans absorb some of the CO2. The resulting drop in ocean pH, known as ocean acidification, has been called <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ocean-acidification-reefs-climate-change_n_1658081" target="_hplink">climate change's "equally evil twin"</a> by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco.
Coral reefs, which are an invaluable part of marine ecosystems and tourism economies, are threatened by ocean warming and acidification.
At the 2012 International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns, Australia, 2,600 scientists signed a petition calling for international action to preserve global coral reefs, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18765584" target="_hplink">reported the BBC</a>. Noting that 25 to 30 percent of the world's reefs are already "severely degraded," <a href="http://www.icrs2012.com/Consensus_Statement.htm" target="_hplink">the statement asserts</a> that "climate-related stressors [represent] an unprecedented challenge for the future of coral reefs and to the services they provide to people."
A <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coral-triangle-reefs-threatened_n_1662620" target="_hplink">recent report from the World Resources Institute</a> found that the Coral Triangle, an important area from central Southeast Asia to the edge of the western Pacific with many reefs, is threatened at a rate far greater than the global average.